Adelaide - Sport

Sport

The main sports played professionally in Adelaide are Australian rules, football, cricket, netball and basketball. Adelaide is the home of two Australian Football League teams: the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power, and one A-League team, Adelaide United. A local Australian rules league, the SANFL, is made up of nine teams from around Adelaide. The SANFL has been in operation since 1877 when it began as the South Australian Football Association (SAFL) before changing its name to the SANFL in 1907. The SANFL is the oldest surviving football league of any code played in Australia.

Adelaide has developed a strong culture of attracting crowds to major sporting events. Most large sporting events take place at either AAMI Stadium (the home base of the Adelaide Crows and also the Powers home game venue) or the historic Adelaide Oval, home of the Southern Redbacks cricket team. As it has since 1884, Adelaide Oval hosts an international cricket test every summer, along with a number of One Day International cricket matches. Memorial Drive Park, adjacent to the Adelaide Oval, used to host the Adelaide International, a major men's tennis tournament in the lead-up to the Australian Open before the tournament was moved to Brisbane in 2009. Adelaide's professional football team, Adelaide United, play in the A-League. Founded in 2003, their home ground is Hindmarsh Stadium, which has a capacity of 17,000 and is one of the few purpose-built soccer stadia in Australia.

For two years (1997 and 1998), Adelaide was represented in Australia's top level rugby league, this came after the New South Wales Rugby League had been playing a single game per season at the Adelaide Oval starting in 1991. The Adelaide Rams were formed and played in the breakaway Super League (SL) competition in 1997 before moving to the new National Rugby League in 1998. Initially playing at the Adelaide Oval, the club moved to Hindmarsh Stadium late in the 1998 season. As part of a deal with the NRL, the clubs owners News Limited (who were also owners of the SL) closed the club only weeks before the start of the 1999 season. In 2008 the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, a Sydney NRL club, and the South Australian Government announced a three-year contract in which the Sharks will play a single home game each season at Hindmarsh. Unfortunately this only happened for 2009. From 2010 the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs signed an agreement to play one home game per season at the Adelaide Oval for three years with the hope of establishing a strong supporter base in Adelaide.

Adelaide has two professional basketball teams, the men's team being the Adelaide 36ers who play in the NBL and the women's team, the Adelaide Lightning who play in the WNBL. The 36ers play their home games at the Adelaide Arena while the Lightning also play at the Adelaide Arena. Adelaide has a professional netball team, the Adelaide Thunderbirds, who play in the trans-Tasman netball competition, the ANZ Championship, with home games played at ETSA Park. The Thunderbirds also occasionally play games or finals at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, while international netball matches are usually played at either the Entertainment Centre or the Adelaide Arena.

Since 1999 Adelaide and it surrounding areas has hosted the Tour Down Under bicycle race, organised and directed by Adelaide based Mike Turtur (Turtur won an Olympic gold medal for Australia in the 4000m Team pursuit at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics). The Tour Down Under is the largest cycling event outside Europe and the was the first event outside Europe to be granted UCI ProTour status.

Adelaide maintains a franchise in the Australian Baseball League, the Adelaide Bite. They have been playing since 2009, and their home stadium is Coopers Stadium. Their name stems from the local Great Australian Bight, and from the abundance of local Great White Sharks.

The Australian Grand Prix for Formula One racing was hosted by Adelaide from 1985 to 1995 on the Adelaide Street Circuit which was laid out in the city's eastern parklands. The Grand Prix became a source of pride and losing the event to Melbourne in a surprise announcement in mid-1993 left a void that has since been filled with the highly successful Clipsal 500 for V8 Supercar racing, held on a modified version of the same street circuit. The Classic Adelaide, a rally of classic sporting vehicles, is also held in the city and its surrounds.

The World Solar Challenge race attracts teams from around the world, most of which are fielded by universities or corporations although some are fielded by high schools. The race has a 20-year history spanning nine races, with the inaugural event taking place in 1987. Adelaide will host the 2012 World Bowls Championships at Lockleys Bowling Club. Adelaide will become the third city in the world to have held the championships twice, having previously hosted the event in 1996.